“As I've said before, we expect to grow the top line first and then earnings will follow.”

In context

“roving across all regions and dayparts. And we're getting back to winning the morning with flat morning daypart transactions that outpaced our overall recovery in Q4. Notably, our U.S. company-operated sales comp turned positive in September, driven by transactions, and it's remained positive through October, reflecting the momentum taking shape in our business. Our international segment continued to demonstrate the resilience of our brand, delivering 3% comp sales growth in the fourth quarter, led by strength across our top markets, including Japan, which bounced back into positive comp territory in the quarter as well as China, the U.K. and Mexico. Earnings per share of $0.52 in the fourth quarter continues to reflect the investments we're making in the business to execute our strategy. As I've said before, we expect to grow the top line first and then earnings will follow. These results demonstrate meaningful progress we've made on our Back to Starbucks plan as we bring our work to scale, and they show the early impact of investments we've made across 3 key areas in fiscal 2025 to deliver exceptional customer service, improve the look and feel of our community coffee houses and get back into culture with an overhauled approach to marketing and menu innovation. First, we've continued to invest in and scale Green Apron Service as the new standard for our coffee house customer experience. August was a milestone as we went live with a new standard across our full U.S. company-operated portfolio. We made much needed investments in staffing and hours to put more partners on the floor at the right times. We reassessed and extended hours of operations for about hal”